Cebu’s Trade Growth and Heritage Structures

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu has many historical sites that contributed a lot to the city’s progress since the time it opened to global trade in the 1860s. A glance at its past would show that Cebu was already a hub of trade and commerce even when the country was still under the Spanish flag.

Muelle Osmeña, Compania Maritima and the Gotiaoco Building are just three of the most prominent structures of old Cebu that played vital roles in Cebu’s growth. These pre- to post-war heritage structures are part of this year’s “Gabii sa Kabilin” (Night of Heritage) celebration on May 30.

Compania Maritima

By the seafront near the Cebu City Hall stands an old structure, facing Cordova town at Mactan Island. It may seem like an eyesore to the city’s present generation, but during its heydays Compania Maritima (Spanish for Maritime Company) was a famous fixture in the Cebu’s business life.

According to University of San Carlos archaeologist and historian Jose Eleazar Bersales, the building “housed the Shamrock Hotel during the pre-war years, but its ground floor was dedicated to the shipping company.”

Built in 1910 and owned by the Fernandez Hermanos Inc. (Fernandez Brothers), the building suffered extensive damage from bombings during the liberation of Cebu City in 1945.

The building was repaired and later used again for the offices of Compania Maritima, one of the biggest shipping companies in the country in the late 1930s. The company later went bankrupt in the late 1980s, and the building has since been abandoned.

Muelle Osmeña

Cebu, being one of the Philippine cities with the busiest harbors, has a historical port and lighthouse that lies at the very heart of Opon (now Lapu-lapu City). Local and international goods and passengers docked here in the early 1900s.

The narrow Mactan channel that separates Mactan Island from Cebu mainland used to be the focal point of local and inter-island trading in the Visayan region, as well as in international shipping.

In 1917, the Opon port already surpassed the port of Iloilo in terms of trade volume, and became the busiest primary port of call for inter-island shipping.

“Muelle” (Spanish word for wharf) has been renovated and preserved, and still functions today as docking port for ferries carrying passengers from Lapu-lapu City to downtown Cebu City and vice-versa.

Muelle Osmeña is named after Sergio Osmeña, Sr., the first – and so far the only – Cebuano Philippine president.

The Gotiaoco Building

Built in 1914, the 100-year-old Neo-Classical Gotiaoco Building that stands along M.C. Briones Avenue, behind the Cebu City Hall, was once the headquarters of one of the most successful agricultural trading firms of Cebu – the Gotiaoco Hermanos Inc., which was owned by Chinese trader Don Pedro Gotiaoco (1856-1921), who migrated from the Fukien Province in China.

The building was instrumental in the burgeoning of Cebu’s trade, as it provided the much needed office and commercial spaces, particularly for the Royal Line Inc., Dollar Shipping Lines, and the insurance company – Visayan Surety.

Gotiaoco Building also housed the Cebu Chamber of Commerce during its inception, and became the hub of business activities in the city.

“Its strategic location between the Cebu Municipal Hall and the Customs house in Aduana at the waterfront is very close to the shipping companies and commercial establishments transacting business at the port,” said Lenlen Lim of the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum.

“As far as I can remember, in the 1970s the ground floor of the building was home to the First Insular Bank of Cebu (FIBC) which was partly owned by the Gotianuys and theirs cousins, the Gotianuns, owners of Filinvest Credit Corp., founded in the 1950s. [It is] now called Filinvest and Filinvest Land with its president, Andrew Gotianun Jr. FIBC was later merged with another bank and became IBAA, the Insular Bank of Asia and America, which in the 1980s, was purchased by Philippine Commercial and International Bank (PCI Bank), which also occupied the building,” relates historian Jose Eleazar Bersales.

“William Lines also occupied a section of this building in the 1970s and until their closure in the 1990s following the short-lived merger into WG&A (William Lines, Gothong and Aboitiz),” Bersales adds.

In 2012, the building was turned over to the Cebu City Government upon the expiration of the 99-year foreshore lease agreement granted to the Gotiaocos. The building has been declared by the Cebu city council as a local heritage site. Plans are underway to convert the Gotiaoco Building into the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum. “It is envisioned to be the premier institution and repository of the Chinese cultural heritage,” said Lenlen Lim.

For their significant roles in Cebu’s business and economic growth, the Muelle Osmeña, the Compania Maritima, and the Gotiaoco Building deserve due recognition in the “Rise of the Queen” at this year’s “Gabii sa Kabilin” on May 30.